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This paper offers a critical reflection on the distant, expert position taken on by social scientists influenced by positivism. On behalf of neutrality and objectivity, a dichotomy is constructed between the scientist and its object. This dichotomy is questioned and contrasted with the principles of clinical research, where the knowing subject and the object of knowledge interfere. Using a paradigmatic work in the field of sociology of prisons as a testimony to the disintegration of this dichotomy, we bring to light the fact that the social scientist withdraws subjectively from the social relationship under study, while asserting that his subjectivity must be taken into account in order to grasp the construction of the object. This “absence” is contrasted with one of the rare works from the clinical tradition to have completed the project of subjective involvement of the knowing subject, making subjectivity a constant presence in the relationship under study.

We present extensive photometric and spectroscopic observations of the nearby Type Ia supernova (SN) 2023wrk at a distance of about 40 Mpc. The earliest detection of this SN can be traced back to a few hours after the explosion. Within the first few days, the light curve shows a bump feature, while the B − V color is blue and remains nearly constant. The overall spectral evolution is similar to that of an SN 1991T/SN 1999aa-like SN Ia, while the C ii λ 6580 absorption line appears to be unusually strong in the first spectrum taken at t ≈ −15.4 days after the maximum light. This carbon feature disappears quickly in subsequent evolution but it reappears at around the time of peak brightness. The complex evolution of the carbon line and the possible detection of Ni iii absorption around 4700 Å and 5300 Å in the earliest spectra indicate macroscopic mixing of fuel and ash. The strong carbon lines are likely related to the collision of SN ejecta with unbound carbon, consistent with the predictions of pulsational delayed-detonation or carbon-rich circumstellar-matter interaction models. Among those carbon-rich SNe Ia with strong C ii λ 6580 absorption at very early times, the line-strength ratio of C ii to Si ii and the B − V color evolution are found to exhibit large diversity, which may be attributed to different properties of unbound carbon and outward-mixing ^56 Ni.